Do or Die

*Hazel*

            “Will you call me to tell me you’re alright? Cause I worried about you the whole night.” I could see the dark circles under his eyes as he rubbed his eyes slowly and massaged his left shoulder with his right hand. He must have been pretty tired with all the things going on around us and yet, he still cares for me.

            I looked at him directly and said, “I’ll call you when everything is settled. You should get some rest and stay in the room until things calm down.” Then, I moved to the kitchen to prep some foods for him. Just in case if I was not able to come home anymore.

            “What if everything is not settled? Would you leave me hanging with no answer? How am I supposed to relax when I am worried about the threats that you will be facing?!” He clenched his jaw when he talked to me. I knew he was mad because he was worried about me.

            “Everything will be fine. I know how to take care of myself. The most important thing now is for you to stop worrying about others and start to care for yourself. I have them with me. We can take care of each other.”

            He sighed, “Please, don’t repeat my mistakes. Inform me about your condition at least once a day. I won’t be able to sleep until I know that you’re safe inside. If you’re able to do so, then I let you go.”

            “Diing.. Dongg..” The bell rang before I was able to reply him. He went to open the door and the others came at the right time.

            “Hey, Logan! We were worried about you! We thought that we might lose you too.” Hardin hugged him as soon as he saw him opened the door. Yes, his name is Logan. The man I married.

            Bella approached me, “Hazel, we have brought everything you asked us too. Jacob is waiting for us at the parking. Is there anything else to bring too?”

            “No, everything is enough. Thank you for coming right up to fetch me.”

            “Not a big problem. I asked Elijah to stay with Logan here. Just in case if anything happen to Logan, Elijah is here. Would that be okay?”

            “Yes, thank you so much for the thought and help!”

            “Not a big deal. Shall we take a leave now?”

            “Yes, the earlier the better.”

*Jacob*

            We were on the road for three hours by now and will be reaching that place in a few minutes. No one talked about anything. They were all lost in their own thoughts and I was about to lose my mind with the silence.

            “Hey, since we will be reaching there in less than fifteen minutes, I just wanted to say that I love all of you and please take care of my Munchkins if anything happen to me.” I said that clearly to get their attention.

            “You have to stay alive if you love the Munchkins too. None of us wanted to care for your obesity cats that just know how to eat and sleep. Imagine the amount of money that I have to spend on their food and vitamins. I might be the one crying when I look at the decreasing numbers in my bank account towards the end of the month.” Bella replied to my request immediately.

            “I’m willing to sacrifice all my belongings for them. If you can take care of my little Munchkins, take anything you like in the house including the house itself. That’s how much I love them.”

            “Deal. I have always wanted to have your house as mine.” Hazel looked at me with excitement as if she was going to get my house sooner or later.

            “I thought you hate cats? You never lay your hands on them, Hazel.” Hardin replied to her sarcastically.

            “I have Logan. He can take care of the cats while I’m preparing the paperwork to know the value of the house.” This conversation was surely about my Munchkins and Hazel’s intention of selling my home.

            “And here we are. The cemetery of Black Rose.” And everyone shut their mouth immediately when they realized that we had reached the destination. This was it. The final of everything and our last destination. Hardin was holding his fist, Bella was biting her lower lip and Hazel lost in her own thoughts again. She might be thinking about her last moment with Logan. And me? I just wanted to settle everything as fast as we could and kept everyone alive. I did not want to lose anyone anymore.

            We took a deep breath and got out of the car to enter the cemetery. It was 5.00 p.m. when I looked at my watch.

“We need to find her and take the black rose necklace before 7.00 p.m. Be aware of your surroundings and don’t let her come nearer. Remember to use the red rose when needed. Jacob will be going with Hazel while I’ll be with Bella. Always stick together and don’t get separated in any circumstances.”

“Okay, let’s start searching now. Hardin and Bella will start searching at the east side while Hazel and I are on the other side.”

Hazel and I walked briskly and started to look at the names on the headstones. We had passed almost 27 graves and still did not find hers. Out of sudden, the whistling sound came from nowhere and we looked at each other with wide eyes. She came! Hazel opened her bag and passed me the red rose immediately. We looked around us to look for her and there she was. Standing in her black gown with a stiff posture as if there was a metal hanger inside of her gown. I had never seen her wore anything else and her greying hair was always tied in a tight neat bun. Her face was as pale as white with a bit of wrinkles on the forehead.

I threw the red rose on her as she started to walk but missed it due to her speed. Hazel passed me the next rose immediately and as I was about to threw it, she was standing in front of me. Right in front of me. I froze up and could not move my hands and legs as if it was paralyzed. Hazel called my name but I could not think of anything anymore. This was not the way I thought I would be dying. I promised Logan to make sure that Hazel reached home safely but it seemed like promise was made to be broken.

I knew I could not make it and I hated to break the promise I made with Logan and left Hazel here all alone. I hoped she will meet Hardin and Bella sooner and get out of here immediately. As I was about to close my eyes, a puff of dust rose up into the air. Hazel reached my hand and we ran to somewhere safe.

“Don’t scare me like that! Don’t just stand there and do nothing! Just don’t die! We promised to take care of each other, so we have to stick with that.” She shouted with her red blurry eyes.

“I’m sorry. I was too paralyzed back then. I thought that …” I stopped when I noticed the headstone beside me. No way. It can be that easy. I kneeled down to see the name on the headstone clearly.

“IN LOVING MEMORY

MADAME ROSE NOIRE

NOV 12 1937 – AUG 24 1960

YOU ARE DEEPLY LOVED AND WILL BE MISSED”

“Hazel, we found it! This is hers! Call the others now!”

“What?!” Hazel paused a bit to digest the information before started to call for Hardin and Bella and asked them to come over.

*Hardin*

We started to dig up the grave as fast as we could before dusk. Things will get harder if we were late. By the time that my hoe hit her coffin hard, we tried to open up the coffin together. We looked inside and there she was. Sleeping in her black gown with her hands were folded and put on her stomach. The black rose necklace was worn on her and I took it before she came running at us. The necklace was our only way to end this and be safe. No more people dying, no more sufferings, no more being frightened and we could start to live our life like usual.

“Now, all we have to do is to break the necklace before she came.” Hazel’s words snapped me from my own thoughts. Yes, she was right. We need to break this before anything worse could come. As I was about to throw the necklace on the headstone, the whistling sound came. She was about to come and mixed things up. I could not let it happen that way. I need to break it now!

“NOOOOOOO!!!!” I stopped when I heard her voice. She talked?! She never talked before. How was that possible?

“Throw it now, Hardin!” Hazel shouted at me and it was continued by Bella.

“Just do it now, Hardin! She may be faster than before. Quick, throw it away now!”

“IF YOU BREAK IT, MADAME …”

“CLANGG, CLINGG, CLANG!!!” Her words stopped when I broke the necklace into pieces. This was it. This was the end of it. She will be no longer in our life. She will get away and move to another place. I saved us. We saved us all.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!” Hazel shocked us with her scream and got all eyes on her before she started to laugh with a loud voice and looked at us with her cynical eyes. What happened? Why was she acting like this?

“I’ve warned you before, not to break the necklace but you did.” She came out of nowhere with her black gown and stood beside Jacob. We were to shock and clueless with all the incidents that we were not able to scream anymore. We looked at her and Hazel. What was going on? Why Hazel was not being Hazel and the Madame was not being the type of supernatural we thought she could be? There were too many questions that need to be digested before I could generate any solutions.

Hazel moved her head crankily as if she was having a trouble in adjusting her movements before she started to look at us and smile cynically. She made deeply eyes contact with me as if she was saying ‘thank you’ sarcastically to me. Thank you for breaking the necklace, I guess. Then, she started to laugh before run swiftly to another place and left us clueless. I was still digesting and processing the information. This was too much to handle. I just could not understand what and why this happened.